Josh Craft, the Director of Government Relations and Public Affairs for Utah Clean Energy, shows the outdoor plug that connects his solar panels to his home in Salt Lake City on Friday, March 20, 2026.
Portable solar panels and an invertor system, seen here installed on an apartment balcony, are now possible for Utah residents, and states across the country are following suit.
Plug-in solar panels are seen on top of a residential home in Salt Lake City on Friday, March 20, 2026.
Josh Craft, the Director of Government Relations and Public Affairs for Utah Clean Energy, shows the outdoor plug that connects his solar panels to his home in Salt Lake City on Friday, March 20, 2026.
Portable solar panels and an invertor system, seen here installed on an apartment balcony, are now possible for Utah residents, and states across the country are following suit.
Plug-in solar panels are seen on top of a residential home in Salt Lake City on Friday, March 20, 2026.
Note to readers• This story is made possible through a partnership between The Salt Lake Tribune and Grist, a nonprofit environmental media organization.
Affordable, portable clean energy is on the brink of becoming widespread in the U.S., thanks to Utah leading the way in making the stars — and solar panels — align.
Plug-in solar panels — sometimes called “balcony solar” — allow people to generate electricity by plugging panels directly into a standard outlet and help cut down on utility bills, without the need for expensive rooftop installations. The relatively cheap technology has taken off in parts of Europe, and recent Utah law has sparked interest across the U.S.
Utah lawmakers passed HB 340 in 2025 with bipartisan and unanimous support, becoming the first state to allow residents to plug solar systems directly into residential outlets.
“It’s great for anyone who wants a little solar power but does not want to pay $30,000 for a roof install,” said Rep. Raymond Ward, R-Bountiful, who sponsored the bill.
Ward learned about plug-in solar panels after reading an article about their popularity in Germany. Balcony panels there added 10 percent more solar capacity to the grid in just a few months, The New York Times reports, just as Russia’s war with Ukraine was draining energy supplies.
A year after HB 340 passed, 30 more states plus the District of Columbia have drafted similar bills, according to information tracked by the plug-in solar lobbying group Bright Saver.
“Thank you, Utah,” said Cora Stryker, a co-founder of the California-based nonprofit. “It’s a common-sense, no-brainer thing that should keep sweeping the country.”
Virginia’s plug-in solar bill currently sits on the governor’s desk awaiting a signature. Bills in Hawaii, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Oklahoma and Vermont have passed one chamber in statehouses so far.
Despite that momentum, U.S. residents still can’t buy plug-in panels from the same big box stores that sell other consumer electronic appliances, like hair dryers, washing machines or toasters.
That’s partly because Utah and other states also need rules and regulations for the panels, because while they sound simple, they flip the way the electrical utility system works on its head.
Residential households are only designed to pull power off the grid, through wires to outlets, and into plugged-in devices. Balcony solar does the opposite by creating power and pushing it backward into the outlet and “upstream” through a home’s wires, Ward explained.
“Utilities tend, in general, not to want anybody else to make power,” Ward said.
Power providers also have concerns about safety, the lawmaker said. If line workers are trying to repair an electrical line they think is switched off, for example, but a condo’s panels are still pushing electricity through that line, it could put those employees in danger.
But to Ward, those problems were solvable.
“The electricity is the same over [in Europe] as it is over here,” Ward said. “All the same rules of physics work and have proved to be safe.”
But U.S. residents can’t smuggle balcony solar systems over in a suitcase from Europe, because North America uses different plugs and voltages.
Ward collaborated with Utah’s largest electricity provider, Rocky Mountain Power, to craft language for his bill so the plug-in movement here can be home grown.
A spokesperson for Rocky Mountain Power noted the utility took no position on HB 340.
“We remain concerned that some products entering the market may not meet the requirements of the bill,” the spokesperson wrote in an email, “potentially creating electrical hazards for utility workers.”
The legislation removes liability for the utility, and panel owners can’t ask for payments like those with rooftop arrays who participate in net metering. It also requires a company called Underwriters Laboratories, often shortened to UL Systems, to develop safety certification for plug-in panels.
“We were a little surprised,” said Kenneth Boyce, vice president of engineering for UL, “but we take it very seriously.”
UL develops all kinds of safety standard for consumer products, building materials and other goods. But Utah’s legislation marked the first time they were asked to test plug-in panels, and the company got to work over the summer.
It issued a white paper in November outlining potential hazards with the panel systems themselves as well as how they might interact with a typical home’s wiring. From there, they developed product-level requirements that will allow the UL mark to appear on certified products.
“We’re … making sure we keep (consumers) safe while they get the benefits of participating in the energy transition,” Boyce said. “We can do both.”
Testing explored ways to ensure plug-in panels don’t make circuit breakers explode, or that GFCI plugs that are supposed to trip and switch off — commonly found in bathrooms, kitchens and outdoors — don’t fry and malfunction without the residents’ knowledge.
No plug-in systems have been certified by UL to date, Boyce said.
“We expect that will change soon,” he said, noting he’s heard from multiple manufacturers. He expects the UL stamp to appear on U.S. panels in “months, maybe even weeks.”
Some inventive individuals, including the popular Utah YouTuber JerryRigEverything, have cobbled together their own plug-in systems in the meantime. They use components that are individually UL certified, like panels, cords and inverters. But all the components combined into a balcony system haven’t been tested and green-lit for safety, Boyce cautioned.
For those willing to take the risk, a global company called EcoFlow is currently one of the most popular online retailers for plug-in panels in the U.S. They’re currently in conversations with UL about how to certify their product, according to company spokesperson Ryan Oliver.
They’ve sold portable solar systems for about four years in Europe “where they’re very popular,” Oliver said.
“In fact,” Oliver said, “we actually had this product ready to go when Utah legalized plug-in solar.”
An inverter, which brings electricity from the solar panels into the home and shuts down generation to ensure safety, currently costs about $300 and is only available in Utah for now. A system that includes a battery to store solar energy costs $1,200. And compatible solar panels run between $250 to $1,000, depending on the size of the array.
“It’s consistent with Utah’s values of wanting to supply your own energy, and letting people make their own decisions around meeting their needs,” said Josh Craft, director of government relations and public affairs for Utah Clean Energy.
He’s currently experimenting with his own plug-in system donated by EcoFlow.
“It works. It’s fun,” Craft said. “I have foldable panels set up on my patio roof.”
The panels could also amp up an entirely new market for clean energy. The balcony solar movement comes at a time when the Trump administration is slashing subsidies for wind and solar projects, even as energy bills are expected to spike due to demands from data centers and artificial intelligence, Craft noted.
Utah code resulting from Ward’s bill caps power output from plug-in systems at 1,200 watts, which means they won’t offset all the electrical needs from a typical household.
JerryRigEverything reported that his array saves about a dollar a day on his electricity bill. Craft figures his system, which is combined with a battery, cuts down his power bill by about 10%, but he hasn’t tested it while running an air conditioner.
In just the last few weeks, Ward said he’s had conversations with lawmakers in Hawaii, Washington, Minnesota and Colorado about how to facilitate plug-in solar in their states.
So, is the lawmaker proud that Utah happened to launch a national plug-in solar trend?
“Heck yeah,” Ward said.
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